Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa (February 14, 1913- disappeared July 30, 1975) was a famous labor union leader of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters. He would also be involved with the Mafia to gather support for the Teamsters. He disappeared in 1975 and was never seen again. History Hoffa was born on February 17, 1913 in Indiana. His father would die in 1920 when Hoffa was seven. His family would move to Detroit in 1924 where Hoffa would live the rest of his life. He would drop out of high school at 14 to support his family. Even at a young age Hoffa displayed an interest in labor unions as he organized his fellow workers at a grocery store. He was fired in 1932 for his union activities. Hoffa joined a local group of Teamsters and saw that though it was a large group, it was heavily divided by personal grudges and poor organization. In 1952, Hoffa became vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and in 1957, he was the President of International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In 1964, Hoffa united nearly all over-the-road truck drivers in the Teamsters in the National Master Freight Agreement. This would give the union over 1 million members and would finally unite it under one single body. All the while Hoffa was using the Teamsters pension plans to fund multiple Mafia projects, one of the most notable is helping in the construction of Las Vegas during the fifties and sixties. He also allowed Mafia to steal whatever they wanted from Hoffa's drivers in exchange for more money for the Teamsters. Attorney General Robert Kennedy prosecuted Hoffa on a number of charges and finally got him convicted of jury tampering and was sent to jail in 1967. Richard Nixon would pardon Hoffa in exchange for his remaining out of Union activities until 1980. Hoffa disappeared mysteriously in 1975 and was never seen again. Possible Conspiracies 'Robert Kennedy's assassination' In 1968, Robert Kennedy had gained a large amount of fame for convicting Jimmy Hoffa and was running for President of the United States. After Kennedy won the Californian primary and was a sure thing for the Democratic nomination for President, he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan. If Robert Kennedy had gotten to run for President he would have been up against Nixon. It is theorized that Nixon had Hoffa arrange the assassination in exchange for the pardon. This is even more plausible since Hoffa donated 500,000 dollars to Nixon in his previous campaign for President, which he lost to Robert's brother John F. Kennedy. The theory is even more plausible since Sirhan Sirhan may have had Mafia connections. 'Hoffa's Disappearance' There are a multitude of possibilities as to what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa was last seen in the parking lot of the Machus Fox Restaurant. He had told others he was meeting two Mafia leaders there, who after his disappearance denied ever having a meeting with him. Hoffa arrived first, around 2:00 in the afternoon, but after waiting nearly 30 minutes, none of the others had arrived. Annoyed, he called his wife and told her that he was going to wait for a few more minutes before giving up. This was the last time that she ever spoke with her husband. Not long after Hoffa had called home on the pay phone outside the hardware store, a maroon 1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham pulled out of the restaurant parking lot and nearly hit a truck. The truck driver, who was making deliveries in the area, pulled up next to the car and immediately recognized Jimmy Hoffa sitting in the backseat behind the car’s driver. The truck driver also noticed a long object covered with a gray blanket on the seat between Hoffa and another passenger. The truck driver thought it was a shotgun or a rifle. He didn’t get a good look at anyone else in the car. It is possible the Mafia had him killed, possibly for secrets he knew or the fact that they preferred the new leader of the Teamsters. He could have been killed by the CIA to prevent future involvement in Mafia and labor union affairs. He could have simply disappeared on his own volition to hide from his enemies. Whatever the case Hoffa was never seen or heard from again. Category:Political Category:Big business Category:Crime